Electric truck - tow vehicle of future ?
Interesting article about an electric Class 7 truck . Begs the question, are electric powered heavy duty pickups...ready for HD towing service... far behind ? Range right now is somewhat limite...
Forum Discussion
time2roll wrote:
I would buy a plug-in hybrid truck if there was decent electric range for day to day commute.
Range loss will depend on how you use the vehicle. Seat warmers go a lot further than the cabin heat. Warmish garage will keep the battery capacity up. Using the climate control to warm the vehicle while plugged in and before you leave can also help.
And if needed a fast DC charge station would really help. Not many around yet :(
We set the timer to warm the seats and steering wheel before we go to work. The garage hangs around 10 degrees anyway so we don't really need to pre-heat. We have never been in really cold temps (colder than about minus 15 celcius but we see about a 20 percent drop in range...depending on the heater usage it would probably closer to a third.
Again though, EV's are not meant to be a Panacea at this point. If they don't work for someone then of course don't buy one. If they do, then there may be some advantages in terms of everything from drive quality, low maintenance costs and of course fuel costs. For those doing 100 KM commutes or greater there can be some serious savings there.
